Steam traps are items of equipment common in factories, refineries and other industrial or commercial facilities. Steam traps are installed in steam lines and act to separate (remove) condensed steam, or “condensate”, from the steam without allowing the steam to escape. The separated condensate is then typically recycled back through condensate return lines to the boiler for conversion back to steam. To be effectively operating, the steam trap must generally prevent steam from escaping past the steam trap and entering the condensate return lines. If steam is allowed to pass through the steam trap into the condensate return line, the result is a loss of valuable energy and a reduction in the efficiency of the steam system.
There are several well-known types of steam traps, including inverted bucket traps, float traps, thermostatic traps and disc traps. Manufacturing facilities, refineries and large buildings often are fitted with extensive systems of steam lines for heating and for process steam. Some of these facilities can contain 1,000 or more steam traps. To promote efficient operation of the steam traps, some type of monitoring or inspection is required to detect malfunctioning traps.
In the past, several different methods of checking the condition of steam traps have been used. One system uses a battery powered probe to sense the temperature of the traps. Another system uses a battery powered probe in an inverted bucket steam trap to sense the presence of water in the trap. When the inverted bucket steam trap has water in it, the trap has a state or condition referred to as “prime”. A properly operating inverted bucket trap must have a condition of prime if it is functioning properly. A requisite amount of water in the trap is indicative of proper steam trap operation. A known steam trap monitoring system includes a probe extending into a steam trap, the probe being responsive to the level of condensate in the steam trap.
Other existing steam trap systems include signal lights on the steam traps indicative of the process conditions in the traps. Such systems require visual inspection of all the steam traps in the entire manufacturing facility for proper monitoring of all the steam traps.
Another system to monitor steam traps is a hard wire system which includes physical wiring that is threaded from each of the steam traps to one or more centrally located steam trap control stations for receiving and storing data concerning the process conditions of the steam traps.
Still other methods for monitoring steam traps included the transmission and reporting of data using radio frequencies.